lems. They simply looked familiar, like Americans, and their voices had an American pitch. The United States Army was even, in the nineteen-fifties, to adopt a green uniform in the style of the Wehrmacht-an uncalculated trib- ute of some significance. It gave up olive drab-which derived from horse- men's garb and the tropical service uniform-and the influence of British military tailoring for Central Eu- ropean green and gold, high-peaked German caps, and black leather in place of brown. It is usually the defeated who emulate the conqueror, or smaller nations their larger allies. The wartime United States Army of- ficer's uniform-olive-drab tunic and "pink" (taupe) slacks-survives today in the Netherlands Army. P OLITICAL events also compelled the United States to turn what had been an enemy nation into an ally. A degree of coöperative work was neces- sary to secure West Germany from the perceived threat of the Soviet Union. This coöperation, which was accom- plished with characteristic American pragmatism and good will, and was all the easier because the United States had not really suffered very much at German hands, eventually resulted in a relationship in which considerable respect and good feeling existed on both sides. The West German adherence to the United States rested originally, how- ever, on a lie. The United States ca- sually, even thoughtlessly, pledged it- self to reunion of the two Germanys. (One says "two," although a third and a fourth "Germany" exist-Austria and the German cantons of Switzer- land.) The lie was not calculated; most of the Americans involved in making policy on Germany and Central Europe during the early Cold W ar believed that Germany had to be reunited. Yet the reunion of Germany was not in America's national interest. Quite the opposite. Those who had had to fight a united Germany had a logical interest in Germany's remain- ing divided, and therefore unlikely to threaten them again. The United States pledged the reunification of Germany because this seemed an ap- propriate way to combat the Soviet Union, occupier of East Germany. The commitment reached its rhetori- cal apogee with President Kennedy's cry in West Berlin, in 1963, that he was a Berliner. But, of course, he was not, and could not be. His essential interests, and those of his country, 69 "\ '\.. "'- -.. )." " " , ,.... ,. " ... ", \, ,..... ., " I/> .. .. .þ. ,.,tt ..., '" " . t - '" J '- '" . \ .., , \,. . , - ---- .. -.,." C. .... t . ,. The heigh <> \I soa 46 (J '110 Ie <:, \ "1);... :l r r - tt ""' ,, C South. New 'tork, N. Y. 10019 (212) 371-4000 - ....... "'- "".... ... ... " ... PANORAMIC VIEWS · LAVISH APPO " TMENTS · CI'4 INDIVIDUAL CLIMATE CONTROLS . L AND BAR. THE PARK LANE BALLROOM · MOTO. EVISION · REFRICERA TORS · ttK .ROOM RESTAURANT <; AND C:ARACF